An example of said floor element is described in WO 97/47834 A1. Said kind of floor elements has become more and more important in the recent years thanks to the easiness of installation provided by the coupling elements. In fact, a floor covering can be quickly installed by non-professional installer and, in case of restoration, without the necessity of removing the pre-existing floor covering. Furthermore, thanks to the coupling elements, the floor covering is substantially flat and well levelled. In fact, since the floor elements are not glued to the subfloor there aren't glue accumulates below the floor elements that can affect the leveling of the floor covering.
Due to the material properties and/or to the manufacturing process, the floor elements may be bowed and have a substantially convex shape in such a way that, for example, a central portion of the floor element is disposed at an upper level with respect to the extremal portion. In this case it could be difficult to couple together the coupling elements of the floor elements, especially in case the floor elements are disposed in an offset configuration. In fact, in this case, for example, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to insert the male part of the central portion of a first floor element into the female part of the extremal portion of a second adjacent element, since they are on different heights. Moreover, in this coupled condition the couple elements are highly solicited, and they could break or damage.
This problem is enhanced when the floor element comprises a board made of a rigid material and/or when the floor element comprises a decorative layer provided above said board and wherein the decorative a decorative layer is made of a brittle material such as natural stone, glass or sintered ceramic materials like porcelain, earthenware or the like. The decorative layer can be, for example, a ceramic tile. Examples of said floor elements are shown in WO 2004/097141 and WO 2008/097860.
The present invention aims in the first place to provide an alternative floor element, which, in accordance with several of its preferred embodiments, is directed to solve one or more of the problems arising in the state of the art.